The following objectives were met to address the college's mandate to reduce its budget by 6.3 percent:

Reduce current year operating budget by the target: $1.363 million

Sustain programs/services required to meet FTE target

Maximize use of non-state funds for ongoing operating expenses

Minimize personnel reductions in 2010-2011

Capture (in the current year) a portionof the anticipated 2011-2012 budget reduction

Retain flexibility to adjust/modify reductions, as able, in current year

Reduction Category Amount ($)

Lapsed salaries 199,242

and un-used sabbaticals

Goods/services/travel 512,002*

President's contingency 100,000

Shift of salaries and 551,756expenses from state to non-state sources

Total 1,363,000

* Figure contains about $260,000 from one-time funding sources.

SBCTC systemwide response

The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges was required to submit a system response to the 6.3 percent budget reduction by Thursday . The SBCTC response to the 10 percent level is expected to be transmitted Friday, Oct. 1.

ShorelineCommunity College will achieve the state-mandated 6.3 percent budget reduction that is scheduled to start today, Oct. 1, 2010, without layoffs.

“This plan is a delicate balance and not without some risk,” President Lee Lambert said Thursday, Sept. 30. Lambert thanked Vice President for Administrative Services Daryl Campbell and the rest of the Senior Executive Team for the recommendation that he approved. “This was difficult and done on a very short timeline,” he said.

While nobody will lose their job as a result of the current cuts, the plan does capture varying levels of savings from what is generally labeled as “lapsed salaries.” About 15 positions are in that category which includes positions that are unfilled, delayed hiring or filled at lower expense to the college.

The risk involved, Lambert said, is that the plan uses about $260,000 from one-time funding sources to get to the target of $1.363 million. “Normally, we’d avoid using funding that isn’t sustainable,” Lambert said. “However, this is one-time money for a one-time purpose; buying us time. That we are able to do this now is a result of our conservative approach over the past two years.”

Another strategy used in the plan is to shift expenses to non-state funding sources, which generally come from various fees. College officials have been working on that process, but it was accelerated by the state's call for immediate cuts.

The time purchased by the plan will be used to get back to the process of planning for the next round of budget cuts announced by Gov. Chris Gregoire: A predicted 10 percent target that would take effect on July 1, 2011.

“We know another cut, a bigger cut, is coming,” Lambert said. “The question was, ‘How much of that cut could we do now, potentially easing that coming burden?’ We know that 10 percent would require significant layoffs and a restructuring of the college. This lets us do that in as thoughtful a way as possible.”

Lambert said that roughly half of the current $1.363 million reduction plan is in areas that could be considered for continuing into the next biennium. Those choices could reduce the overall amount needed to hit the coming 10 percent target of $2.249 million, he said.

“We don’t have to decide that now, but having the option is prudent,” Lambert said.

Lambert said the next steps will be to start the planning process outlined in June. That process includes work done over the summer by the Strategic Planning/Budget Committee which gave a report Sept. 21 during the Opening Week all-campus lunch. That committee will continue to provide the foundation for budget-reduction discussions in the coming academic year.

“While we’re planning for reductions, we also must continue looking beyond these immediate challenges to the future,” Lambert said. “I’ve also asked the Strategic Planning/Budget Committee to form a sub-group, tasked with looking at how we build a virtual college and achieve the 2020 vision of serving 20,000 students with our current campus and a new virtual campus.